Translating 2022 social media trends into a winning social media strategy for your non-profit.

The past couple of years, non-profits have reported a significant reduction and increased scrutiny of both their marketing budgets and allocation. 2022 social media trends are coming to the rescue. Since many non-profits moved operations to online or hybrid, they now have the agility to stretch their reach and engage with multiple audiences at no to very little cost.

For the next few months your social media plan should focus on painting an accurate picture of your organization’s persona and increase engagement across audiences based on the use of meaningful content. The pandemic and not only necessitated the need for non-profits to communicate clearly, accurately and with expertise. As you are embarking in this exercise, do your research, find out who is your audience and what do they need for your non-profit. Ask where and how they like to consume information. The 2021 Social Media Demographics Guide by Khoros is a good, easy to follow document that breaks down user’s demographic information by platform.

Your content strategy is the heart and soul of your social media plan. It will tell the story of your organization and promote its mission, and do it in a way that is well received by the communities you serve. Now is the time to create measurable goals. Be specific. Put it in writing. Choose wisely. Knowing your audience will help you choose the social media platforms that better represent the target demographics. Be an online storyteller. Tell the stories of your employees, of your customers and donors. Make it personal.

If you are wondering how to better capture the attention of multiple audiences look no further. The best examples of direct engagement with multiple target audiences come from likeminded organizations. Back on My Feet by Storytellers for Good tells the story of hope within the homeless community. Watch, listen, immerse yourself in how Family Changes the Situation, Love146's mantra about what holds us together as people fighting child trafficking and exploitation. Several different versions of the same video asset are used across mediums including your website, across social and email marketing. As you are thinking of your audience, their needs and social platforms, you can make small changes to the main versions of your video that will speak the language of your target audience and be conducive to the multitude of platforms you will use.

Although, video assets are great in promoting your story, take it a step further to using live videos. Live videos are one of most successful engagement tools. You should broadcast your fundraising, educational and public affairs events on platforms such as Facebook Live and run concurrent conversations on Twitter capturing the attention of multiple audiences. Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram Live are free to use and are prime real estate for this type of visual asset. The benefits of developing live videos span from developing real-time personal connections with your target audience, promoting your subject matter experts, to casting a wider net in meeting your development goals. Keep in mind that Facebook algorithms prefer live videos over any other visual assets.

In creating a social media plan, non-profits should look inwards:

· Talk about your people and why they share their talents with the organization and their clients.

· Talk about the culture of your institution and post visual examples.

· Talk about grants, donations, volunteer work, anything and everything that demonstrates your mission in action.

· Talk about news, publications and awards.

· Talk about any programmatic additions and updates that are relevant to your audience profiles.

· And last but not least, create a suite of posts that show case the organizations expertise.

In creating content, make sure that your posts add value, there are visually engaging, and most importantly 100% accurate. Non-profits ride on their reputation and their reputation is what brings change through clear, powerful call to actions. Oceana is a great example of an organization that promotes change and at the same time drives significant traffic to their website.

Before you create your actual posts, make sure you choose the right social media planner such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite, HubSpot Marketing Hub, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud. You want to schedule your posts well in advance and have a listening feature as part of your social media management software. Utilizing the right social media management tool will help you understand and measure the performance of your posts and social media strategy. It will provide you with insights that your non-profit needs to meet your strategic goals, extend your reach and do it on a limited budget.